Peony: The Best Varieties for Your Garden

Michener and Adelman, an arboretum plant curator and grower-seller respectively, share their expertise on the heavenly scented garden beauty known as the peony and its varieties. Around a quarter of the guide is taken up by general material about the flower, giving gardeners a vocabulary to understand and describe peony types and features. The bulk of the book consists of closeup color photos of luscious peony blossoms and information about almost 200 varieties of bush, tree, and intersectional varieties. The authors are passionate about their peonies, and tend to understate potential downsides of the flower; for instance, gardeners need to plan for a spectacular but short bloom season and months of green foliage, a topic that could be more fully presented. The closeup photos are gorgeous but give no sense of total plant proportions. That said, even knowledgeable gardeners will find new tips to improve what they already grow and love. Color photos. (Dec.)